Katarzyna (Catherine) Plenzler

As promised earlier, I’m going to focus on the siblings of my great-grandfather, Joseph Plenzler. So far, I’ve found two Plenzler siblings who settled in Toledo after emigration to the US: Joseph and Margaretha.

A brother, John is discussed in an earlier post. Catherine, Elizabeth, and Kunegunda are all documented by Lucky Ladlewski. Each of the sisters had settled in the South Bend/St. Joseph area of Indiana.

Catherine married Jacob Niemier in Głuszyna, Poland in 1881. (I do not have the marriage record.) Thanks to Judy Stewart, we have a photo of Catherine.

Katarzyna (Catherine) Plenzler Niemier

Catherine and Jacob arrived in the United States 1887 per the 1900 US census. At the time of the 1900 census (see here and here, the data spanned over two pages), the family was living in South Bend, Indiana. Children were listed as

Mary, age 17. Mary was noted as having been born in Poland and was employed as a cigar maker.

Wojciech (Albert), age 14. Albert was also noted as having been born in Poland.

And a grandchild was also noted on the 1920 census: Irene, age 1-1/2. Peter is noted as living with the family still in 1920 and the census notes that he was widowed.

The 1910 census also showed a child, Aloizy (Aloysius), age 3, this most likely is the child listed as Alec in the 1920 census.

Catherine passed away January 15, 1944 in South Bend. I have a copy of Catherine’s obituary (unfortunately, I do not know where it was published) and it is transcribed below:

Mrs. Catherine Niemer, aged 75, died at 1:55 p.m. Saturday in her home, 1503 West Poland street, after an illness of six weeks. She was born in Poznan, Poland, March 28, 1868, coming to South Bend 56 years ago. Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. Mary Kazmierczak, Mrs. Lucille Hes, and Mrs. Anna Vargo, all of South Bend; five sons, Albert, Peter, Melchiar, Joseph, and Aloysius, all of South Bend; two sisters, Elizabeth Zalas and Gwendolyn Zalas, both of South Bend; 33 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be conducted at 9 a.m. Wednesday in St. Casmier’s Roman Catholic church and burial will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

As always, if you have more information, please do share! Send me an email or leave a comment here and I’ll follow up.